Renewal of course accreditation

Report on renewal of accreditation of three higher education courses of study offered by Oases Community Learning Limited.

TEQSA has determined, under section 56 of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (the TEQSA Act), to renew accreditation of the following higher education courses of study offered by Oases Community Learning Limited for a period of seven years until 5 September 2020:

Master of Integrative and Transformative Studies

Graduate Diploma of Transformative and Integrative Studies

Graduate Certificate of Integrative and Transformative Studies

TEQSA has, under subsection 53(1) of the TEQSA Act, imposed two conditions on the accreditation of the above courses of study offered by Oases Community Learning Limited.

Condition 1:

OCL provides two reports detailing progress against the implementation of the provider's benchmarking framework. The first report is due no later than six (6) months from the notification of this decision. The second report is due no later than 12 months from the date of this decision.

Condition 2:

OCL provides a teach-out or course transition plan to ensure that students are not disadvantaged in the event that the courses of study are discontinued. This plan is due no later than 30 days from the date of this decision.

Background to Decision

Oases Community Learning Limited submitted an application for renewal of accreditation of three courses of study under Part 4 of the TEQSA Act. Subsection 45(4) of the TEQSA Act requires a registered higher education provider who is not authorised to self-accredit the course of study to apply to TEQSA for accreditation. Subsection 56(4) enables TEQSA to renew accreditation of a course of study for a period not exceeding seven years.

Main Reasons for the Decision

TEQSA has determined that the three higher education courses of study submitted by Oases Community Learning Limited for renewal of accreditation comply with the Provider Course Accreditation Standards. The course accreditation covers delivery at all Australian sites.

TEQSA considers that the decision to apply conditions to the accreditation of the courses of study offered by Oases Community Learning Limited is consistent with the basic principles for regulation in Part 2 of the TEQSA Act as TEQSA requires further evidence to demonstrate Oases Community Learning Limited is able to ensure ongoing compliance with the Threshold Standards.

Oases Community Learning Limited has instituted a framework for benchmarking and the use of comparative data, such as student attrition, student progress, course completions and grade distributions, in the monitoring of student performance in the courses of study offered by the provider. TEQSA considered it necessary to impose a condition that requires Oases Community Learning to report on the implementation of this framework due to its recent development and does not consider it burdensome as the reports will draw on information that the provider is collecting as part of its approach of maintain, monitor and act on comparative student data.

To mitigate the risk to students and ensure they are not disadvantaged in the event that the courses of study offered by Oases Community Learning Limited are discontinued, TEQSA considered it necessary to impose a condition that the provider develops a more comprehensive course transition plan to ensure that effective strategies are in place to either teach-out the course of study or that alternative arrangements can be deployed to transition students.